Colleges not always Facebook-friendly

The female athlete in the photo, the one chugging a beer, might be of legal age. And the male athlete celebrating at a party with friends might be puffing away on a cigar, not marijuana.

But Loyola University athletics director John Planek has no interest in deciphering those ambiguities. His interest is in protecting the image of his school and the safety of its student-athletes.

Planek came to that conclusion last fall after sifting uncomfortably through online profiles on facebook.com, the social network that is now used at 800 colleges and universities. Concerned, Planek threatened to take away the scholarships of Loyola student-athletes who did not remove their profiles from the social network's Web site.

"I've gotten the 'Planek is an idiot' stuff. But when their moms and dads drop their student-athletes off on our campus, I'm the dad here, and it's my job to look out for them," Planek said unapologetically.

Loyola remains the only athletic department in America to take such a hard line, a precedent likely to be discussed this week among administrators and coaches as exposure of NCAA student-athletes peaks at the men's basketball Final Four in Indianapolis.

Monday morning, for example, George Mason basketball player Lamar Butler picked up 100 new names on his "friends" list in about an hour, giving him a total of 1,128. As popular as Butler has become, GMU might have to win the NCAA title to catch up to Illinois star Dee Brown, who stopped accepting online friends after the number reached 2,000, according to school officials.

The NCAA has not yet taken a stance on the Facebook issue other than studying and discussing it, a spokesman said.

DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti-Ponsetto has placed Facebook on the agenda for the next month's meeting of the school's Captain's Council, a group of student-athlete team captains, but has no official athletic-department policy.

Neither does Northwestern, Illinois or Notre Dame yet--except for the general advice administrators have provided to student-athletes to use good judgment when posting photos and sharing public information with people who might not have the athletes' best interests in mind.

Planek likened the limiting of any athlete's freedom of expression to drug testing, curfews and restrictions on talking with agents and gamblers that are part of the scholarship agreement.

"I didn't feel it was out of the ordinary from the other things we've instituted for student-athletes we're paying to go to school," Planek said.

At Kentucky, athletic director Mitch Barnhart gathered 500 Wildcat athletes to warn them about the potential dangers of engaging in Facebook communication after one of the school's most prominent men's basketball players complained about an impostor posting a phony profile under his name.

After Barnhart implied they could lose their scholarships if caught in compromising photos on Facebook sites, several Wildcat athletes thanked him for looking out for them.

"I just felt the reputation of this institution, this department, and these kids was worth protecting," Barnhart said in a phone interview.